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Radio Spectrum International (RSI) has implemented a unified radio management system as part of an overall public private partnership worth £70 million.

Radio Spectrum International (RSI) has implemented a unified radio management system as part of an overall public private partnership worth £70 million.

RSI, a joint venture company set up by IT services group CMG and the Radio Communications Agency (RA), developed the system called Radiocommunications Agency Unified Licensing Executive System (Rules) to enable the RA to administer charging for frequency bands from the spectrum.

Peter Topp, associate director at RSI said that £70 million is the projected revenue figure RSI will earn over the next seven years from delivering IT services to the RA.

CMG will provide and charge for a number of IT services including systems development services, support services and charges for running the desktop environment.Rules is the first major project implemented by RSA and it will allow the RA to "adjust pricing to encourage efficient use of the spectrum," said Topp.

Spectrum is a scarce commodity and is in high demand by customers such as mobile phone operators and broadcasters who bid for allocations from the RA, an executive agency for the DTI, responsible for managing and monitoring the civil radio spectrum in the UK.

"Rules will allow the RA to reduce pricing for underused frequency bands and increase pricing in frequency bands which are congested," said Topp.

Maureen Coulter, senior analyst at the Yankee Group Europe said that there has been "a lack of co-ordination within the RA" over the last few years as the increasing demand for wireless spectrum from mobile phone operators has "taken everyone by surprise."David Hendon, chief executive of the RA said: "We recognised that our diverse licensing activities would be better placed under a single system. With a unified system, we could manage the radio spectrum more effectively, provide a single interface to customers, and manage a number of different licence types."

The new system is based on desktop PCs running Windows NT, Sun Unix servers and Oracle databases. It also uses a workflow engine developed by Staffware. RSI is considering developing an interface to the Internet to access "potential customers" said Topp.